Symposium: Positioning Sculpture

To celebrate our current exhibitions, ‘David Smith. Field Work’ and ‘Bharti Kher. A Wonderful Anarchy’ we are hosting a symposium that focuses specifically on issues around making, commissioning and curating sculpture. Questions we will consider will include:

• What are the considerations for commissioning artists to make sculpture for the public realm?

• What constitutes a meaningful context for the display of sculpture?

• What considerations ensure meaningful commissions take place?

• How do artists begin to respond to a wide range of sites and context, and conceive art works that inspire and challenge audiences?

We are delighted to welcome Theresa Bergne, Tom Freshwater and Tania Kovats to share their extensive knowledge and experience with us during this afternoon event. Tickets are £15. The event will start at 2 pm and includes afternoon tea from Roth Bar & Grill. _ Theresa Bergne is an independent curator, producer and art consultant based in the southwest of England. She set up Field Art Projects in 1997 which commissions artists to make work in the public realm responding to a wide range of sites and contexts to deliver works that inspire, challenge and entertain. Tom Freshwater is the Head of Public Programmes at the National Trust. He works across the organisation developing and commissioning programmes of cultural activity including contemporary arts, exhibitions, research, historic site presentation, publications and digital content. Tania Kovats lives and works in Devon. Her work explores how our culture negotiates how we connect to the natural world, with a particular focus on water as a vital element that forms and defines the landscape we live in. Kovats investigates the psychological and poetic, as well as employing water as a means to explore critical environmental and socio-political questions. Kovats’ work has reflected on the seas and oceans, river systems, the river as a boundary, maritime culture, coral bleaching, islands, water pollution, flooding, tides, and the beauty of the horizon line. Her work is in many major collections and Kovats often makes work that is site sensitive and placed in the public realm. Permanent sculptural commissions include TREE in the Natural history Museum, 2009, and The Space of Reading for the new Bodleian Library in Oxford 2019.